


If it weren't for second chances

by robotwitch



Series: Once more for the ages [38]
Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Family Feels, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:41:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21636043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robotwitch/pseuds/robotwitch
Summary: The daddy-daughter bond can't be broken by time, distance, or new relationships.
Relationships: Joel & Sarah (The Last of Us)
Series: Once more for the ages [38]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1289426
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	If it weren't for second chances

**Author's Note:**

> This is a crossover of Naughty Dog properties, an alternate universe where there is no Cordyceps Brain Infection outbreak and everyone lives. Both the Uncharted and The Last of Us characters are here and very much alive, (eventually) brought together through Cassie and Ellie's chance meeting at summer camp.

Weeks without hearing from dad, Sarah’s used to. Not missing her birthday, not months.

The last they heard from dad, he called Tommy to inform him the truck had broken down and he and Ellie were stranded until it could be retrieved and repaired. Then radio silence.

Dad’s never missed her birthday, not once. Sometimes he calls at the crack of dawn, sometimes it’s just a card arriving in the mail, but Sarah didn’t doubt for a second she’ll hear from him until the clock struck midnight. Sarah’s never had a worse birthday.

Snows came early and stayed late, but still nothing from dad for months.

Desperate for any sign of them, Sarah kept her eyes and ears peeled for news of the Fireflies. If dad and Ellie reached their destination, it would only be a matter of time before Marlene and her anarchists made their next move. But even Firefly activity is at an uncharacteristic minimum.

Which is why Sarah is annoyed with Tommy when he waits a whole week in April to tell her dad and Ellie have come back.

She rushes over to the house as fast as she can. Letting herself in, low voices drift toward her from the kitchen.

Tommy breaks off midsentence when she rounds the corner, but it’s dad she locks eyes with.

“Hey, baby girl,” he croaks. “Sorry I missed your birthday.”

Sarah sniffs, fighting off angry tears, “What took you so long?”

Glancing out the window, “How about we go for a walk?”

A slight chill clings to the air and the trails out behind the house are muddy, but traversable even for her. Despite the brace, Sarah finds keeping pace with dad easier than it has been in a long time.

For not being very good at stringing words together, dad has quite the tale to tell. Choking up, he struggles through his disjointed recollections. Sarah recognizes the mixture of pain and guilt on his face all too well.

Still she doesn’t understand, “Why did you wait so long to contact me – I’ve been so worried –”

Sarah hiccups from trying to repress her tears for so long.

“After everything, we had to focus on finishing the mission.”

“No, dad. I mean now. You’ve been here a week and didn’t call me? If Uncle Tommy hadn’t have let it slip, I’d still be in the dark.”

Dad breaks his gaze. “I don’t have a good excuse. It’s been a long trip, I reckon, Ellie and I are just tired is all.”

Understanding him and accepting his answers are two separate things, as far as dad’s concerned; Sarah’s still upset he didn’t reach out to her sooner.

Hiccupping again, “So I suppose, you’ll be heading back to Boston soon, won’t you?”

The shake of his head surprises her. “No. Ellie and I are gonna stick around awhile, if you’ll have us.”

Sarah’s proved she can stand on her own two feet; she can’t think of anything she wants more than to be near to him again, not strained between hundreds of miles and words unsaid.

“You can’t shut me out if you stay.”

Dad nods, “Ellie’s been keeping me honest.”

“Good. Anything else to clear the air?”

“Yeah. I’m adopting Ellie.” His resoluteness somehow soothes Sarah’s hiccups. Still he looks at her like she might object.

With a gentle smile, “I’ve always wanted to be a big sister.”

“Sorry, it took so long,” dad chuckles.

Sarah doesn’t feel the chill in the air as they finish their walk, speaking only of dad’s plans for the future. Neither of them looks back at where they’ve been.

The world is warming into a promising spring.

\----------

Their last night at Tommy and Maria’s just so happens to coincide with the end of the school year, freeing up Sarah, and Tommy suggests they have a big family dinner.

“We’ll break out ma’s old recipes,” he adds with a fiendish gleam in his eye.

Joel can’t bring himself to reject the idea, despite the exhaustion from slowly moving loads of secondhand furniture into the new place.

“You celebrating finally getting the three of us off your hands?”

“Maybe just a little bit.”

It’s nice to have an occasion to do something in return for the generosity Tommy and Maria have shown him and Ellie and Tess. He even sees Maria put her feet up once he and Tommy start whipping up dinner.

Her relaxation doesn’t last long, however, immediately jumping up when Sarah arrives. From the kitchen, he hears her greet Sarah and another in turn, “Andrew! Glad you could make it!”

Joel freezes.

Sarah’s mentioned seeing somebody a few times, but he didn’t think much of it, didn’t consider this somebody might be bringing ‘round to family dinner worthy.

Tommy snickers and only then does Joel realize this was a set up. A means to catch him off guard and introduce him to Sarah’s boyfriend.

“I’m gonna get you for this,” Joel grumbles, abandoning his short rib prep.

“Give Andrew a chance first. You might find you like him.”

“Don’t think that’s gonna save you.”

Tommy shrugs, “I’m just saying…”

Everyone’s still greeting each other in the hall.

Sarah hugs Tess like an old friend then introduces Tess to the man next to her. “Andrew, this is Tess, my dad’s partner. Tess, this is my boyfriend.”

“Handsome fellow. You’ve done good for yourself, Sarah,” Tess teases; both Sarah and her boyfriend turn beet red.

Even embarrassed, Joel hesitates to make his presence known. Sarah still has the upper hand on him, knowing and liking Tess; Joel can’t say he knows the first thing about his daughter’s chosen partner. Hell, he’s not even sure how to process the fact that she’s dating.

Racing down the stairs, Buckley rams into Joel’s legs to make himself the center of attention.

Ellie’s not far behind. “Planning to get all hyper-overprotective-dad on him?”

Joel snorts, “Wasn’t so much a plan…”

“Well, if you want some help –”

“Joel, quit dawdling. There’s a nice gentleman here, waiting to meet you. You too, Ellie,” Tess spots them loitering.

“Time’s up,” Joel bucks up his courage. He should be intimidating his daughter’s boyfriend, not the other way around.

Andrew’s grip is firm; if he’s nervous, he’s doing well to hide it. “Pleasure to finally meet you, sir. And this must be Ellie. I hear you’re going to be in my class this year.”

“You’re a teacher?” Joel asks, grasping for any information he can.

“U.S. history.”

“Hmm,” Joel responds, at a loss for words. It’s probably rude of him, but Joel’s out of small talk. “I gotta finish dinner.”

Tommy’s chuckling to himself as Joel picks the knife back up, “Real smooth.”

Grumbling, “I’d like to see you do better.”

“I did. Look, Andrew’s a good guy – been good for Sarah. I know you’re not in the habit of giving people chances, but for her sake – try.”

“Try,” Joel mutters to himself. “Try. Try.”

\----------

Intent on watching dad watch Andrew, Sarah’s lost the thread of conversation.

It’s pretty obvious dad’s completely distracted by Andrew’s presence. He’s grinning and bearing it, but his laughter’s a little too forced.

Tess gently ribs Sarah, “I keep expecting that vein in Joel’s forehead to burst.”

Sarah chuckles nervously, “Crap. You don’t think he hates Andrew, do you?”

Springing Andrew on dad was probably not the best plan to introduce him, but Sarah always ripped her band-aids off; it stings more but fades quickly. Hopefully, dad will be too distracted to get mad about the other thing Sarah’s made up her mind to come clean about tonight.

Tess glances at Joel and shakes her head, “Nah. He’s just trying to figure out when his little girl turned into a grown, mature woman.”

Bitterly, “He’d have realized that if he’d been here. No offense, Tess.”

“Ain’t my place to say where Joel should or shouldn’t have been. But I can’t deny, I’ve got my bias,” she shrugs. She pauses, then, “It doesn’t bother that we – you know…”

The directness of her question catches Sarah off-guard.

She has mixed feelings about dad turning to smuggling to help them scrape by, but that life led him to Tess.

Tess’s whip-smart and doesn’t take shit, and in a weird way, Sarah admires her extralegal sensibilities. More importantly, she likes Tess and she likes Tess for dad.

He needs someone to challenge him; someone who cares about him, rough edges and all. He deserves a relationship like that after all those years alone. To Sarah’s eye, Tess seems to be all that for him; dad better give Tess all that and more in return if he wants her to stay.

Sarah finally answers, “Ain’t my place to say either, but I’ve got my own bias.”

“Smart girl,” Tess grins almost approvingly. “Mind if I ask about you and Andrew?”

“Dad probably won’t – so why the hell not? Maybe you can put in a good word to dad for Andrew too.”

Sarah eyes dad again, but she can’t figure out what the expression on his face means. He’s not cross, but he damn well hasn’t been won over either.

“I’ll do my best, but I can’t make any promises.”

“Fine by me.”

“How’d you two kids meet?”

“In-school professional development days. The district combines the middle and high schools cause they’re not big enough for separate ones. We were in the same group, and that was that.”

“That’s all? You met at a work thing?”

“You got no room to judge. You hired dad for a work thing.”

Tess holds her hands up in surrender, “In our defense, Bill and Frank set us up.”

Sarah rolls her eyes. Though she never met the other smuggling duo, she doubts it was their intention to push dad and Tess together romantically speaking.

With an all too mischievous gleam in her eye, Tess follows up, “What convinced you to keep him around?”

“If you’re fishing for dirty details, I won’t bite.”

Tess shrugs, “Didn’t mean to imply that might be the _only_ reason. No shame in whatever the honest answer is.”

The honest answer isn’t remotely sexy, but Sarah blushes anyway. “He’s the first person who hasn’t treated me like I need pity because of what happened to me.”

Tess’s face softens, “That’s a good man to keep around.”

She gives Sarah’s arm a reassuring squeeze, Sarah almost flinches away from.

It’s the sort of gesture Sarah would expect from Maria, not Tess. Maria, who was Sarah’s first womanly influence since they left Austin; Maria, who helped her not be scared of ending up in a relationship like her parents. Not Tess, from whom she was always kept at arm’ length.

But Sarah could grow used to gestures like this, if Tess sticks around. For dad’s sake, Sarah hopes she does; he deserves someone who won’t pity him his past either.

Biting her tongue, Sarah changes her mind. Andrew deserves a fighting chance in dad’s opinion and dad ought to have a chance to realize what Andrew means to her without distraction. Telling him she reached out to mom can wait.

Lost in her own thoughts, Sarah clearly has missed something funny, the table bursts out laughing. Sarah forces a little chuckle of her own, trying to catch onto the joke, but catches Tommy’s eye instead.

His curious brow furrow somehow makes Sarah feel she’s made the right and wrong decision at the same time.

Dad can’t volunteer to do dinner clean up fast enough, dragging Ellie along with him.

Tommy cuts Sarah off before she can follow everyone else into the living room.

“You doing alright? Couldn’t help but notice you were off in your own little world earlier.”

“Yeah. Well, I’d been doing a lot better if dad would lighten up.”

“Good luck with that. Especially after you tell him about you-know-who.”

Sarah huffs, “Do you have to compare her to Voldemort? And I’m not telling him tonight.”

“Not telling him? Sarah, wasn’t that the whole point?”

“No, the point was to introduce him to Andrew. Mission accomplished.”

Tommy shakes his head, “The longer you wait, the worse it’ll be.”

Harder to build up the courage maybe, but Sarah’s waited this long already. What’s another week or two, or however long until she finds the right moment?

Dad’s here. Andrew’s here. It’s not like mom’s getting invited to any family dinners any time soon.

\----------

“You’re not leaving?”

“I’ve got to. Andrew’ll keep you company.”

Joel’s mouth hangs open, resisting the formation of words.

“Just try to be friendly.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Sarah pulls her coat on, “I mean, I’d like it if my dad didn’t avoid my boyfriend like the plague.” She kisses him on the cheek then Andrew, who emerges from the living room. “See you both later. Bye now.”

She pulls the door shut and for the first time since they met, Joel and Andrew are completely alone. Joel shoves his hands into his pockets, staring at anything that isn’t Andrew.

Clearing his throat to get Joel’s attention, “I’ve sort of taken over the table with prep work. But you can set up anywhere.”

“You sure I won’t disturb you?”

“Not at all, Joel.”

Joel nods, choosing to settle down in the corner chair, where he left Sarah’s guitar last time. He plucks through the scales, keeping the strained silence at bay.

Contrary to Sarah’s and everyone else’s belief, Joel doesn’t dislike Andrew. He just has no notion what to say to the man. It’s even worse than trying to talk with Sarah’s friends’ parents when she was a kid. He can be polite, but he doesn’t know if he can do much more than that.

He winces as the strings dig into his fingertips, old calluses forming anew. It wouldn’t sting quite so much if he hadn’t of put down his guitar to begin with. But that’s his own damn fault.

Even with Andrew’s assurance, once he’s done reviewing his scales, Joel fingerpicks a new tune rather than practice the song he’s been preparing for Ellie. He hasn’t exactly found the melody when Andrew breaks their polite stalemate.

“Can I ask you something about Sarah?”

His fretboard hand fumbles over the strings.

To Joel’s knowledge, conversations that start like this end in asking for one’s permission to get married. He isn’t too keen on the prospect of Sarah getting married nor giving permission.

“Can’t you ask her?”

“I have. She hasn’t exactly given me a straight answer.”

“You can ask. I won’t guarantee you’ll get a better answer outta me,” Joel regains his fingering and picks up where he left off.

“Fair enough,” Andrew chuckles nervously. “How come she doesn’t talk much about before the accident?”

Relieved Andrew’s question wasn’t the one he was expecting, Joel’s brow still furrows. He shrugs, “Same reason I don’t.”

Andrew presses, “But why is that?”

“We were different people back then – happier, I suppose.”

“I don’t buy it.”

“What’s not to buy?”

“That you were happier then than you are now – either of you.”

Joel finally stops playing, considering Andrew’s perspective.

Between the years after Christine left and ma died, the accident and moving to Boston there were genuinely happy days. But they were numbered and never as constant as they have been these past few weeks.

Thinking on what he told Ellie too, “It ain’t been an easy road for us, Andrew, but we keep finding reasons to move forward. If you love Sarah as much as I think she loves you, shouldn’t matter if she talks about her past or not.”

Andrew’s surprised by Joel’s little speech. Frankly, Joel’s surprised too. He hadn’t realized Sarah’s feelings for Andrew were so obvious to him, but then she never would’ve introduced them is it wasn’t serious.

Andrew cracks a small grin, “As a history teacher, it pains me not to know everything, but as Sarah’s boyfriend, I’ll respect it.”

“Then you might just stand a chance,” Joel jokes back.

If Andrew asked his permission now for Sarah’s hand in marriage now, Joel might be more inclined to give it than he was at the start of this conversation. Not that he needs it; Sarah’s been making her own decisions since she was eight, whether Joel liked them or not.

\----------

She takes a deep breath with each ring. This should be easy – a good practice round for coming clean to dad. Still, Sarah’s breath catches when the call connects.

“Sarah? What a pleasant surprise,” mom greets her, but her voice betrays some trepidation at the irregular call.

“Hey mom. Sorry if this is out of the blue. Is now a bad time?”

There’s a pause, Sarah knows means mom’s checking her schedule.

“I can spare a few minutes.”

“Okay. I’ll make this quick. Dad moved out to Jackson with – to be near me and Tommy. I’m planning to tell him we’ve been in contact and I figured you should know he knows.”

Sarah said she’d be quick, but she honestly didn’t think the words would spill off her tongue that fast. She could barely catch herself from mentioning Ellie or Tess too soon in the conversation.

Mom doesn’t respond immediately, not that Sarah blames her. She would need a moment to process all that information too.

Finally, mom breaks her silence, “I see. You haven’t told him already?”

Sarah shrugs, even though mom can’t see it over the phone, “No. Not yet.”

“It’s unusual for you to come to me first. Even when you were a baby, you always preferred Joel.”

“Dad’s had a lot of other things on his mind,” Sarah tries to be diplomatic with her answer.

“I’m sure he does,” she says unconvincingly. “Was there anything else, Sarah?”

“Yeah, a couple more.” Sarah takes deliberate breath, “Dad adopted a girl from Boston this past summer. Her name’s Ellie. He’s also been seeing someone.”

She wishes it wasn’t her responsibility to give mom updates on dad, but she knows dad won’t do it and having dad back and Ellie around are too important not to come up in future conversations with mom.

“Oh.” Mom’s quiet again. Sarah doesn’t know what she expected mom’s reaction to be, but then maybe her face says more than she is. “I don’t know what to say to that.”

“Just figured you should know.”

“Alright, Sarah.”

Their conversations seem to be constantly punctuated with long pauses, but this time Sarah doesn’t let it go on too long. “I should let you get back to work.”

“Thank you. I appreciate the update. We’ll talk soon.”

“Course. Bye mom.”

Sarah exhales as she hangs up the phone. She envied kids whose parents were still together when she was younger. These days she would settle for parents who didn’t flinch at the thought of each other.

Her head lolls backward and Sarah stares at the ceiling, relieved half the battle’s over. Whatever dad and mom think of each other, at least she can be honest with them.

\----------

No longer being crammed into the same house, somehow leads to regular family dinners all together; Sarah, Ellie, Tess, Tommy, Maria, and sometimes even Andrew.

Dinner conversation tends towards more ordinary topics when Andrew’s around. Though Joel’s gotten more comfortable around his daughter’s boyfriend, none of them can bring themselves to talk openly in front of him about their more sordid histories.

School is their neutral subject of the night and Andrew has plenty to say on the matter. He mentions offhand how glad he is to have a new faculty ID card.

Sarah teases him, “But I love your picture from last year.”

“I was mid-blink! The photographer refused to retake it!”

Joel’s still not used to watching Sarah behave so affectionately with Andrew, but this time he’s distracted by something else. Turning to Ellie, “You had picture day this week?”

She scrunches her nose, “Yeah. So?”

Joel shrugs. “Might be nice to put a few pictures up.”

Tommy lets out a terrific tut, “Hypocrite. You hated how ma kept our school pictures up just as much as I did.”

Ma made a point of making sure she got one nice picture of each of them a year to put up, and while Joel never much liked getting his hair combed back and having to wear his nicest button-down shirt to school, his objections were nothing next to the stink Tommy would make about it.

Next to him, Tess cackles. “Bet you looked like a grump in every one of them.”

“Pretty much,” Tommy and Sarah concur in unison. Except Sarah goes on, “Just without the beard.”

Like an old _Looney Toons_ cartoon, Ellie’s eyes bug out of her face, “You mean you weren’t born like that?”

Tess begs Sarah, “Please tell me you have evidence of this.”

Leaping up, Maria gleefully shouts, “We have Tommy’s old yearbooks in the other room.”

Before either Joel or Tommy registers what’s happening, a pile of yearbooks slam onto the table with a thud. The first one practically falls open to Tommy’s senior portrait, sending everyone into a hit of hysterics.

“Oh my god. Tommy that _haircut_.”

“You look like you’re about to fucking expire.”

Even Andrew gets in on the mockery, “Dave Grohl called. He wants his shirt back.”

“Says the man from Seattle,” Tommy grumbles. Ready for some payback, he tears open his freshman yearbook, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Finding the page, he passes it over to Ellie and Tess. Both of them are suddenly speechless.

“No fucking way –”

“I don’t believe it –”

Sarah confirms over their shoulders, “Yeah. That’s dad alright.”

“Are you _sure_? He looks like he’s twelve!”

“I don’t know. I can still see a family resemblance,” Andrew remarks.

Andrew must be looking at the other picture on the page that might interest folks if he pointed it out because he’s always been relieved Sarah didn’t look more like him.

Snatching the yearbook out of Ellie’s hands, Joel snaps it shut. “Alright, you’ve had your fun.”

Tess settles back down in her seat next to him, “I’m gonna need a copy of that picture.”

Tommy nods, “I’ll see if ma’s framed copy survived the Boston purge.”

“Devil woman,” Joel mummers in her ear.

With a crooked grin, “You love it.”

The yearbooks remain untouched for the rest of dinner. Ellie’s lack of a school photo doesn’t come up again. They’ll put up other pictures in the new house, ones Ellie won’t resent.

After dinner, Tommy recruits Ellie and Andrew to help with clean up, Tess goes with Maria to look over her dam expansion project, leaving Joel at the table with the pile of yearbooks when curiosity gets the better of him.

He stares long and hard at his younger self. Even with the ever-present crease in his brow, his beardless chin reveals just how naïve he was. That kid had no idea how his life was just about to change.

His eyes wander further down the page, but he barely glances at Christine’s picture before Sarah comes back from the bathroom, slamming the book shut.

She catches him trying to pretend he wasn’t looking, “Couldn’t resist, could you?”

“Never thought there was much point to looking back. I barely recognize that boy.”

“I dunno, I think Andrew might be onto something. If you shaved, we might look more alike,” she laughs.

Joel chuckles too, “Not gonna happen. Ain’t nothing short of luck you took after Christine.”

He opens to the page and looks closer. Christine’s smile looks a little too plastered on; Joel remembers it softer, not quite so wide and toothy, but then maybe she was forcing it for the picture or maybe he’s mixing it up with Sarah’s.

Sarah winces, “I’ve got something to tell you that you’re probably not gonna like.”

Her anxiety is palpable.

Inadvisably, Joel attempts to lighten the mood, “Unless you’re about to tell me you accidentally got pregnant, there’s not much you could say that would shock me.”

She glares at him, but at least the tension is broken, “I’m _not_ pregnant.” Exhaling, “I reached out to mom. We’ve been in contact the past few years.”

That _winds_ Joel.

“H-how – how come?”

“I wanted to understand why she left –”

“You know why she –”

“Only in your words. I wanted to hear it from her. I needed to.”

Joel inhales sharply. He thought he was done being angry with Christine, turns out walking out on one’s kid isn’t something he can easily forgive.

He was older when ma and dad divorced than Sarah was when he and Christine split. Made it easier to understand some people just aren’t meant to be together, that some people walk out and don’t come back.

Irritably, “Did it help? Hearing her side?”

“It did. I think I understand her better now.”

At least in some small way, Christine was able to be there for Sarah when she was ready.

He’s surprised by his own curiosity about how Christine is; if she ever settled down again, if she’s happier, but he can’t bring himself to ask.

Instead Joel nods, “Good.”

“You know, reaching out helped me realize something.”

“What’s that?”

“That I didn’t need her growing up cause I had you.”

Joel’s clenched jaw relaxes. Raising Sarah, Joel never thought he was doing quite right by her. That there was always more he could’ve done or something else he could’ve said.

Sarah squeezes his hand. “I’m not gonna say it was easy having you for a dad, but you helped me get back on my feet when I didn’t think I could and taught me how to be self-reliant.”

He pats her hand, “You’ve done good for yourself without either of us. I’m proud of you.”

“Does this mean you’re not mad at me for reaching out to mom?”

“No, baby girl. You had questions only your mom could answer for you. I’m glad you found some answers.”

Sarah gives him a big hug around the middle, “Thanks, daddy.”

Joel knows they’re far from being the perfect family – and he’s even further from being a perfect father, but he’d rather keep trying to make it right than give up on them.


End file.
